INTRODUCTION. 
N the shore of the Pacific, towering to a height of more than 
twelve thousand feet, stands Mt. Fuji, symmetrical in shape 
and rich in vegetation, a fitting emblem of the Japanese nation. 
For several years past, I have taken a special interest in the 
botany of this beautiful mountain. The undulating prairie cover- 
ing the gentle slope at the base, the dense forest stretching up 
to the middle, and higher up the dark growth of firs, are all so 
interesting and impressive that I have never tired of visiting it 
in every season of the year ; observing how the vegetation 
changes as one makes the circuit of the mountain, or how the 
forest is differentiated according to height as one climbs to the 
peak. In summer, I have spent my vacations in the study of 
the flora, examining species after species, when all the prairie 
below is decorated with a great variety of flowers, and the broad 
leaved forest spreads out its foliage to the sunshine. But in 
winter, when the snow covers the peak and throws the dark 
forest of ever-green conifers into sharp relief, my attention has 
been turned to the investigation of the plant formations zone after 
zone, each conforming to a contour line which is in itself cir- 
cular. No other mountain in the Empire shows so regular a 
vegetation. 
In my first visit to this beautiful mountain some five years 
ago, when I was travelling around the gentle slope of the 
truncated cone, my attention was at once attracted to the dif- 
